As the county seat, the city is a center of trade and court sessions. The population was 7,957 at the 2000 census. A slight decrease in population was calculated in the 2010 census.[3] The community includes several
National Register of Historic Places listed properties and
historic districts including
Southwest Holly Springs Historic District, Holly Springs Courthouse Square Historic District, Depot-Compress Historic District, and East Holly Springs Historic District.[4]Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs contains the graves of five Confederate generals, and has been referred to as "Little Arlington of the South".[5]

In the city's founding year of 1836, it had 4,000 European-American residents.[7] A year later, in 1837, records show that forty residents were lawyers,[7] and there were six physicians by 1838.[8] By 1837, the town already had "twenty dry goods stores, two drugstores, three banks, several hotels, and over ten saloons."[7] It is also home to the
Hillcrest Cemetery, built on land given to the city in 1837 by settler William S. Randolph.[9]

Newcomers established the
Chalmers Institute, later known as the University of Holly Springs, the oldest university in Mississippi.[10][11]

The area was developed with extensive cotton
plantations dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans. Many had been transported from the Upper South in the domestic slave trade, breaking up families.[7] The settlement served as a trading center for the neighboring cotton plantations. In 1837, it was made seat of the newly created
Marshall County,[7] named for
John Marshall, the
United States Supreme Court justice. The town developed a variety of merchants and businesses to support the plantations. Its population into the early twentieth century included a community of Jewish merchants, whose ancestors were immigrants from eastern Europe in the 19th century.[12] Even though the cotton industry suffered in the crisis of 1840, it soon recovered.[7]

During the
American Civil War, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant used this town temporarily as a supply depot and headquarters. He was mounting a major effort to take the city of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River.[7] Confederate
Earl Van Dorn led a raid of the area in December 1862, destroying most of the Union supplies at the
Confederate Armory Site.[7] Grant eventually succeeded in ending the siege of Vicksburg with a Union victory.

In 1878, the city suffered a
yellow fever epidemic,[7] part of a regional epidemic that spread through the river towns. Some 1,400 residents became ill and 300 died.[7] The existing Marshall County Courthouse, at the center of Holly Springs' square, was used as a hospital during the epidemic.[6]

After the war and emancipation, many
freedmen stayed in the area, working as
sharecroppers on former plantations.[7] There were tensions as whites tried to reimpose white supremacy.

As agriculture was mechanized in the early 20th century, the number of farm labor jobs was reduced. From 1900 to 1910, a quarter of the population left the city. Many blacks moved to the North in the
Great Migration to escape southern oppression and seek employment in northern factories. The invasion of
boll weevils in the 1920s and 1930s, which occurred across the South, destroyed the cotton crops and caused economic problems in the state on top of the
Great Depression.[7] Some
light industry developed in the area.[7] After
World War II, most industries moved to the major cities of
Memphis, Tennessee and
Birmingham, Alabama.[7]

Geography

According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.7 square miles (33 km2), of which 12.7 square miles (33 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km2) (0.16%) is water.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the
Köppen Climate Classification system, Holly Springs has a
humid subtropical climate, in common with the vast majority of the
South.[14] On December 23, 2015, a massive EF4 tornado struck the town at around 6:00 pm causing significant damage. 2 people on the city's south side were killed, including a 7-year-old boy.[15] The child's death was confirmed by James Richard Anderson, the Marshall County, Mississippi, Coroner.[15] Marshall County suffered damage, some total, to nearly 200 structures during the tornado outbreak, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.[16]

There were 2,407 households out of which 36.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.3% were
married couples living together, 31.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.4% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.22.

In the city, the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 19.1% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 17.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $23,408, and the median income for a family was $25,808. Males had a median income of $29,159 versus $20,777 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $12,924. About 27.5% of families and 32.0% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 44.6% of those under age 18 and 21.2% of those age 65 or over.